Flag-carrier Avianca has agreed to merge with Viva, another of Colombia's most important commercial airlines, while keeping separate branding and strategies, the firms said on Friday. Unifying the companies economically under one holding group, is aimed at shoring the airlines up amid a global industry crisis as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. "Majority shareholders from both airlines together announce that Viva will form part of Avianca Group International Limited (Avianca Group), while Viva founding member Declan Ryan will join the board of the new group, bringing all his expertise in aviation," the companies said. Avianca Group's eventual control of Viva's operations in Colombia and Peru will be subject to approvals from regulators in both countries. Once joined, the airlines will keep their separate branding and business strategies. Avianca completed a restructuring at the end of 2021 which allowed it to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The airline has more than 110 aircraft, with some 12,000 employees. Viva, which built a reputation as a low-cost airline in Colombia and Peru, has 22 planes and some 1,200 employees.<br/>
star
SAS remains downbeat over progress with its ambitious transformation plan, with negotiations to overhaul its cost structure failing to yield any breakthrough. The Scandinavian operator says the ‘SAS Forward’ plan is “entirely dependent” on deleveraging the company and raising “significant amounts” of new equity. It says it needs to the support of financial parties for debt-to-equity conversion and the capital increase. SAS is aiming to save SKr7.5b ($766m) in annual costs by fiscal 2026. But this target can only be achieved with co-operation between the carrier’s management and its key stakeholders. While it has underlined, in an out-of-court process, that “full burden sharing” is crucial to reaching the competitive cost structure, the negotiation process has “yielded little results”, it states. “Much remains to be done before SAS management and the board can declare success with this programme,” it adds.<br/>
All Nippon Airways is restoring the world's largest passenger planes for its connection to Hawaii starting in July, after the double-decker jets stopped regular flights more than two years ago. The Airbus A380s will resume service from Narita International Airport near Tokyo to Honolulu, ANA President and CEO Shinichi Inoue told reporters Friday. The planes will depart twice weekly, on Fridays and Saturdays, July 1 through Oct. 29. ANA's A380s, which seat over 500 people each, are known for their exterior sea turtle designs since the animals are venerated in Hawaii. The planes are nicknamed the "FLYING HONU," using the Hawaiian word for sea turtle.<br/>The airline, the main subsidiary of ANA Holdings, received the first A380 in May 2019 and the second unit a month later. The third jet arrived in October 2021. But because of the pandemic, the A380 has not been in regular service since March 2020. ANA decided to bring the "FLYING HONU" back into service after an increase in bookings to Honolulu. Thanks to vaccines and other interventions, Hawaii's COVID-19 infection rates are under control. The carrier also operates three regular round-trip flights weekly connecting Haneda Airport in Tokyo to Honolulu. That frequency rises to four in May and five in July.<br/>
China’s three biggest airlines have reported heavy Q1 losses as prolonged COVID curbs weighed on travel demand and a weakening Chinese currency and rising fuel prices inflated costs, trends which persist in the current quarter. Analysts expect another year in the red for Chinese airlines as Beijing sticks with its zero-COVID policy to stop the spread of the virus. China Eastern Airlines on Friday reported a Q1 net loss of 7.8b yuan ($1.18b) versus 3.8b a year earlier. The Shanghai-based carrier lost 4.05b yuan in Q4 last year. Shanghai in late March started ordering its 25 million residents to stay at home as authorities raced to contain record COVID-19 case numbers, leading to the cancellations of almost all domestic flights from the city’s two airports throughout April. Beijing-based Air China, the country’s flag carrier, late on Thursday reported a quarterly net loss of 8.9b yuan, its largest since records began in 2008. A year earlier it reported a loss of 6.2b yuan. The capital city, which had put in place a strict entry policy ahead of the Olympic Games in February, is also grappling with fresh coronavirus outbreaks. Flight cancellation rates at Beijing’s two airports have reached around 80%, according to data from Flight Master. China Southern Airlines posted a Q1 net loss of 4.5b yuan, up from 4.0b a year earlier. The outlook for China’s domestic summer travel season is looking bleak at a time when international travel remains effectively closed. Air passenger traffic over the upcoming five-day Labour Day holiday, typically a high travel period, is set to fall 77% from a year earlier, China’s aviation regulator has forecast.<br/>